Review: South Park “Season Finale”

 

 

Overview (Spoilers Below)

 In the middle of his weed-centric podcast, Randy Marsh is arrested. Just when you think it’s going to be for some dumb South Park-ian reason, we’re thrown a curve and discover it’s for a crime that he actually committed! Turns out, the Tweak family—who just so happen to sell the town’s other favorite stimulant—have footage of Randy blowing up their homegrown garden from the season premiere.

While shocked, the Marsh family can think of nothing better to do than celebrate the potential end of Tegridy Farms. Their initial good vibes evolve into a full-on party with the majority of the town stopping by to pay their respects.

Meanwhile, during a game of pick-up football, Cartman throws a pass way too long, resulting in one of his companions being run over by a police cruiser. The victim isn’t Kenny, as one might expect, but rather Jason White, you know, that ancillary character with the receding hairline. His parents, the Whites, are devastated. Not because their son died—they get over that pretty quickly—but rather because everybody is too busy celebrating Randy’s downfall to care about a “White” getting killed by the police.

To replace their son—the only obvious thing to do—the Whites adopt a Mexican boy from the child detention center that once held Kyle and Cartman. Now that the heat’s off them, the center has become a kennel where “good families” can adopt anchor-children whose parents were recently deported.

They take in a Mexican named Alejandro who has no interest in assimilating. To curb his behavior they adopt an even younger Panamanian for him to take care of—and to give the “Whites” a stronger voice to defend the persecuted Randy Marsh.

With no outwardly support other than the Whites, Randy turns to a long-forgotten ally—President Garrison. With so much already on his plate, Garrison can’t get involved directly—sans a few tweets and public admonishments of the South Park government—so instead he sends his advocate and lousy lawyer, Rudy Giuliani.

Rudy’s a useless bundle of crap, as expected, and the highest levels of criminal deflection only work for the president of the United States, which leaves Randy in a compromised position. But Trump Garrison is a narcissist and cannot bear to lose, so he sends Rudy in with a secret weapon. The disgraceful lawyer gives the imprisoned Randy a joint that he hid deep in his loosest cavity. Randy accepts despite the foul odor because Randy loves weed more than Scooby-Doo loves Scooby snacks.

The weed isn’t enough—it’s terrible schwag, not from Tegridy Farms. And since that low-grade shit can’t release him from his senses, Randy admits to all his wrongdoings. He acknowledges losing sight of his purist dream and his ‘tegridy.

But at the last minute, Tegridy Farms gets a reprieve, when Alejandro becomes the Mexican Joker that Kyle prophesied many weeks ago.

 

Our Take

While this isn’t the true season finale, it is a fitting end for the Tegridy Farms plotline and anybody foolish enough to not care for it. Throughout the season, Trey and Matt have made dozens of self-aware references to their fans distaste for Tegridy, even though this season has been generally applauded. A few years ago, however, the fans voiced their displeasure for season-long arcs. So Trey and Matt wanted to get in front of it this time by informing the fans that they don’t care. After twenty-three years if you can’t write a show based solely on your own whims than you might as well sell your soul to China. And that’s kind of the point. South Park was never about the money—although, Trey and Matt have made a ton—it’s always been about telling the stories they want to tell.

The best part of the episode was Garrison’s very subtle attempt to normalize DARVO. DARVO is a mechanism used by wrongdoers—particularly sexual offenders, narcissists, and 45^th presidents of the United States—to displace accountability for their heinous actions. The anagram stands for: Deny, Attack, Reverse, Victim, and Offender. It’s a gaslighting strategy that encourages blaming the victim.

This is a fair and balanced view of post-Trump behavior toward potential victims particularly among the #MeToo movement—but it applies to foreigners and protected classes as well. You can never accuse Trey and Matt of being snowflakes—another DARVO cattle call—and yet they have no qualms about exposing the lunacy this country has normalized these past few years which has allowed perverts to be appointed to the Supreme Court and has seen children locked up and separated from their parents.

Not that I’m surprised, but it’s refreshing that South Park wasn’t, for even a minute, deterred over the China backlash, and can continue to address current events without worrying about their public perception. They have never cared about that, which is likely the secret to their success. This is why we still need South Park in 2019. They’re fast, inexpensive, and potent—just like Tegridy Weed.